Slow Medicine

Slow Medicine is to health care what Slow Food is to fast food — a movement to balance the existing over-emphasis on fast processes that reduce quality. Part of this work is through public education to help people make better choices. Below are some links and information connected with this new way of approaching “health care reform.” Many variations of the idea have appeared over the years.

Carl Honore touched on slow medicine as an alternative medicine concept in his book, In Praise of Slowness, published in 2005.

Dennis McCullough MD introduced slow medicine as a geriatric medicine concept in his book, My Mother, Your Mother, published in 2008. He has since been making appearances via talks and video, on its applicability to geriatrics and gerontology. In 2010, J. Ladd Bauer MD cohosted the radio program Slow Medicine with Dr. McCullough calling in, on KWMR FM radio.

The lead editorial “Slow Medicine” in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, author J. Ladd Bauer MD, published in 2008 (the first Medline article in English about this subject) presents a very broad outline for the concept's development:SlowMedicine

You may also listen to a fifty-minute podcast of the February 23rd, 2008 “A Pair o’ Docs” radio program on KWMR community radio, containing a slowly building discussion of Slow Medicine between hosts Ladd Bauer MD and Steve Hadland MD:www.archive.org/details/JLBauerslowmedicinediscussion/

An exceptional New York Times article by Katy Butler neatly summarizes many of the struggles that call for slow medicine, as a personal account:www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/magazine/20pacemaker-t.html?hpw=&pagewanted=allKaty's book Knocking On Heaven's Door, published September 2013, expands on the story presented in the New York Times article. Her Facebook Slow Medicine site has focused on the end of life.

A Slow Medicine society formed in Italy in 2011. The first Italian national conference on Slow Medicine in Torino, November, 2011, attended by Dr. Dolara (see above), and Carlo Petrini of Slow Food, set the stage for a broadly represented organization devoted to medical reform.www.slowmedicine.it

Dr. Victoria Sweet presented another independent perspective on slow medicine, in stories of her work with patients and professionals at Laguna Honda hospital in San Francisco, interspersed with the ideas of Hildegard of Bingen. The book God’s Hotel was published in April 2012.

The 2nd Italian National Slow Medicine conference was held in Torino on November 30, 2013, and attended by over 300 people. The keynote speaker was Carlo Petrini, who suggested that work toward an international movement should go forward. The Italian Slow Medicine group published a book (not yet translated out of Italian) in the same year: Slow Medicine. The movement is very active in Italy now, having reached the level of regional conferences and continuing education credits for practitioners.

A Slow Medicine Institute has been set up in the Netherlands, with the mission of holding the movement to good standards. www.slowmedicine.nl

Drs. Pieter Cohen and Michael Hochman produce Updates in Slow Medicine, a Facebook page devoted to findings of inappropriate medical use within the system and the market. Dr. Cohen's daily letter to housestaff keeps trainee physicians (and others who sign up) educated about overdiagnosis and overtreatment in specific practical contexts.

The 3rd Italian Slow Medicine conference took place on March 7, 2015, in Torino. A well-attended pre-conference session on Friday March 6 included a presentation by Dennis McCullough on his work and the status of the US Slow Medicine movement, and an appearance by the Dutch physician founders of the Slow Medicine Institute. Collaboration is moving inexorably toward an international movement.

Started by physicians José Carlos Campos Velho and Dario Birolini, a website recognizing the emerging international contributions to the movement promotes Slow Medicine in Brazil:http://slowmedicine.com.br/

Remarks on slow medicine have also appeared over the years in connection with such areas as obstetric nursing, herbalism, and acupuncture. Brief mention has been found of an indigenous American “Slow Medicine,” (any information about which would be greatly appreciated!). Slow Medicine has by now sufficiently fledged to have taken off as both self-promotion, and as the better "idea-promotion" for many aspects of medicine. Counterfeits are appearing, too; fool's gold is on offer -- nonetheless proving the value of Slow Medicine.

(This list is compiled and occasionally updated by J. Ladd Bauer MD, and comes with apologies for inevitable errors and omissions. The intent is to put this emerging worldwide movement into broad perspective.)